Written in heaven

DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL OF LUKE

WRITTEN IN HEAVEN

Luke 10:17-20

17 The seventy-two returned with joy and said, "Lord, even the demons submit to us in your name." 18 He replied, "I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven.  19 I have given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the enemy; nothing will harm you. 20 However, do not rejoice that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven."

NIV

These men returned with joy because of the great power they had over the demons, but Jesus reminds them that he saw Satan who was a great angel with much power fall from heaven in a very obvious way, like a big flash of lighting. If Satan with all the majesty and power he had can fall, who else could fall? Just because they had that kind of power is no reason to rejoice, for if Satan having pride in his power and might, thinking he could overthrow God, if they had pride in their power over demons, they too might fall. It is doubtful Jesus was actually talking about snakes and scorpions, but may have been making reference to the Scribes and Pharisees. It was customary in those days, when a king and his army defeated their enemy, they would trample on the kings and generals in a sign of authority over their new conquered kingdom. Jesus may have been telling them they would indeed have victory over the Jews who lived by the law. He also might well have been telling them because of his authority and not of their own that they had that kind of power and not to rejoice in the power but in the fact that names are written in heaven. There is also enough evidence to indicate it was also the custom for the people to have a book of register, each child who was born was written in this book recording his parents which showed who had legal claim to the inheritance of the father, if there was ever a dispute. There is several references to this book throughout the Old Testament. Moses even asked God to blot his name from God’s book because of the sin of the people when they made that golden calf to worship. We have other references to the book of life and names either in it or being blotted out of it. Jesus tells them and us the greatest reason to rejoice is having our names in that book written in heaven. Although we might have some evidence of being a believer, having some gift of the Spirit, some power over evil, some form of righteousness or what we think are good deeds, or any over type of Christ-like behavior we think we have, we should not take pride in that, rejoicing in our power. We should remain cognizant of the fact that Satan with all his power took pride in that and was cast out of heaven. Could we be in jeopardy of having our names blotted out because we have placed our pride, our rejoicing in the wrong direction, on the wrong things? What we should rejoice in, the only real thing we should rejoice in is the fact our names are written in the book of life.  Our names written there are proof of our right to the inheritance. Our names are written in heaven.